


Mike Wheeler's Sick Day

by hawrthiacoopri



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, I sure didn't, This is for U Louise, i hope you guys like me trying to work with flashbacks lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 07:04:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8479777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawrthiacoopri/pseuds/hawrthiacoopri
Summary: Her heart felt fuzzy. Mike, even when he had a throbbing headache and a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat, always asked her how she was. She really was lucky to have him as a friend. She only wished they could be a bit more.





	

The Wheeler family never really had much of an immune system, and Mike seemed to have gotten the bulk of the burden. He got sick with such regularity that his teachers planned around it, giving him homework that wasn't due for weeks along with the syllabus so that he wouldn't fall behind. He'd gotten chicken pox as soon as he'd been exposed to other kids on a normal basis, so at least there was that out of the way. But since then, he'd had chapped lips and cold sores every day as far back as he could remember.

So it wasn't any surprise that he got the flu. Well, to anyone who'd known him for a long time. El, though, hadn't ever seen sickness. It just... wasn't around her in the bad place. 

Well, she could remember one time. 

_"Sorry I'm late, Dr. Brenner," the man puffed, putting a hand over his mouth and coughing. 011 paused as she started to put on her weighted belt._

_"What's wrong with you, Franco?" Papa said silkily, getting up from his chair and standing with his arms behind his back._

_"I caught a bug, but it's fine, I can still work-" he, along with the other background noise in the room, was cut off by a resounding crack. Mr. Franco was sent keeling backwards, a red handprint on his cheek._

_"What kind of idiot are you?" Papa said quietly, "do you think I can afford to have ill crew members around the experiment?" 011 felt her heart tighten. He'd promised that if she was good, he'd stop calling her that. He must have forgotten. "This is a child, Franco. A little girl with a possibly weakened immune system. You wont be working here anymore, you understand." He clapped his hands, and the rest of the room fell back into the motions. He said loudly, "Somebody prepare a fucking eraser! Do I have to do everything myself?"_

_Mr. Franco never came back._

So when Mike hadn't come to school, she'd naturally been a bit worried. 

"Do you guys know where Mike is?" El asked as she, Dustin, Lucas and Will bikes home from school. 

"He has the flu," Lucas explained. 

"Floo...?" 

"He's sick." El shook her head. "Like... sneezing? Coughing?" El nodded. "Cool. That's what Mike has. So he can't get out of the house." 

"Wait," Dustin said, "have you never been sick, El?" 

"Yeah..." she said, embarrassed. 

"Dude, you are so lucky!" Dustin cheered. "Being sick is the worst." 

El's eyes widened. "What about Mike?" 

"He'll get better," Will shrugged, grinning, "he's sick about seventy percent of the time. He's used to it." 

"Go check on him if you're worried," Lucas said slyly, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind." 

"Okay," El agreed. 

"Catch you later, Ellie!" Dustin yelled, already halfway down the hill with Will and Lucas close behind, both of them echoing with similar sentiments. 

She waved, knowing they couldn't see her, and started high-tailing it to Mike's house. 

She got there quickly, and she knocked on the door. 

Karen opened the door, looking down at El and beaming. "Hey there, sweetheart! Are you here for Michael?" 

"Yeah..." 

"I'm sorry honey, he's really sick. I don't want you to catch anything-" she looked at El's crestfallen face. "I mean, come in! Just be careful." 

El nodded, thanking her and running upstairs. 

"Mike?" El ducked into the boy's room. 

"El?" Mike sat up, coughing a little and running a hand through his hair. 

El smiled a little; of course Mike Wheeler could manage to make sickness look good, with his reddened nose and lips, and his disheveled, curly hair. "Hi." 

"What's up?" 

"I just wanted to see how you were doing." 

"Good, good! My head hurts a little, but it's not anything I've never had before. How are you?" 

Her heart felt fuzzy. Mike, even when he had a throbbing headache and a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat, always asked her how she was. She really was lucky to have him as a friend. 

She only wished they could be a bit more. 

"I brought you the homework..." she said shyly, taking some papers out of her bag and handing them to Mike. Their hands touched for a minute and then jolted away, both of them trying to act like they didn't want to touch each others' hands right then. 

"Hey, where'd you get the biology homework? You're not in that class." 

"I picked them up for you," El mumbled, tucking her hair behind her ear and trying to smile. 

"Aw, you didn't have to do that, El," Mike blushed a little. She tried not to notice. 

"I wanted to," she said eagerly. "I didn't want you to fall back." 

"Thank you," he muttered, setting a hand on top of El's. 

"You're welcome," she said faintly, moving a little bit closer to Mike. 

Mike swallowed, quickly taking El's hand into his and squeezing it a little. 

"I can't kiss you," El's mouth spilt. 

"I mean, I never said you did...?" Mike's face was confused and a little disappointed. 

"It's just that you're sick," she said haltingly, "and I don't want to get sick." 

"Okay. I don't want you to get sick either." Mike said, visibly relieved. 

"I would otherwise," she blurted out, turning away before swiveling back to face Mike, who looked stricken and happy, a grin creeping across his face. 

"I would too," he said quietly, "I would too." 

And in that moment, with Mike in a pajama shirt with ruffled hair and a scratchy throat and El with a curled pageboy and a thumping heart, they both were content to just be. 

"Are you sure-" Mike started, but was cut off by El's lips on his own. It was chaste, and a little shorter than either of them would have wanted, but a good kiss all the same. 

"That was your fault," El accused. "You're too pretty, Mike Wheeler." 

Mike didn't respond at first, only smiling at El and to himself. 

"I could say the same about you, El Byers." 

_•_

"So, what's up with El and Mike?" Lucas, Dustin and Will were hunkering down to do homework at Dustin's. 

"They're totally in love," Lucas responded instantly, Will nodding along. 

"Ok, good, we're all on the same page." 

"It's just like, how are they both so oblivious?" Will added. 

"Right?" The two others chorused, laughing at the unison. 

"El's so clueless, and Mike's so shy, we'll be lucky if they ever even kiss," Dustin complained. 

"They both just, like, look at each other like the other one is a superhero." 

"Yeah," they all sighed. 

"Hey, Dustin, your friends are here!" Dustin's mom hollered. 

"Send them up!" He yelled back, sharing a smile with the rest of the boys and opening the door for Mike and El. 

"Hey, Mike, why're you out of bed?" 

"I just felt a lot better..." He blushed, looking over at El, who was pretending to not look at the black-haired boy. 

"Well, good!" The boys looked at each other. 

They had lucked out, and they knew it. 


End file.
